Ascension Guide
Ascension Guide & Difficulty Planner
Read every live Ascension step from A0 through A10, see the real breakpoints that change routing or combat, and check how each modifier stacks into the next one.
Selected level
A0 · No AscensionA-Grade Page Scope
This Page Explains Ladder Breakpoints, Not One Universal Route
The guide is here to keep A1 through A10 concrete: what changes, when the real breakpoints land, and which system pressures stack from there.
Use it when the question is what the ladder actually changed
It helps when you need the live modifier stack, the A8 HP jump, Scarcity reward pressure, or a clean reminder of why A9 is damage pressure instead of another HP band.
A ladder guide is not a deck-specific script
If the real question is whether your current deck survives the next elite or boss, this page can frame the pressure but it cannot replace the deck or encounter tools.
Live A0 to A10 rules plus sample pressure checks only
The page tracks published Ascension modifiers, reward odds, and sample HP breakpoints. It does not solve one character shell, one map, or one fight by itself.
Maintenance Signals
Who Maintains This Page
A calculator without ownership is just a fancy guess. These signals show who maintains the tool, which live ruleset it matches, and where the responsibility boundary stops.
Independent fan-made editors and data maintainers. This is not an official Slay the Spire 2 or Mega Crit property.
Final site operator and responsible editor. Final contact for corrections, rights notices, and maintenance triage via shwuhen@gmail.com.
Visible copy, links, and page-level signals were checked in the latest review pass.
If a patch moves the numbers, wording, or assumptions behind this page, the page gets revised, narrowed, or rechecked again.
Tool pages cover the math, tables, and assumptions surfaced by the current UI on this route.
Reward pressure, elite pacing, and boss math still need to be read with the current deck and character shell in mind.
Editorial standardsRead the site-wide source boundary, patch workflow, correction path, and desk ownership rules.Patch workflowRead how the site rechecks data and editorial layers after a live update.Report stale dataUse the contact page or email the site operator when a number, rule, editorial note, or rights boundary looks wrong.
V101 Ascension Coverage
Need the ladder delta instead of the full evergreen guide? This page isolates the A6 Gloom wording change and the route-planning fallout in one clean read.
A6 Gloom: Rest Sites only? room frequency restoredMain ladder page syncedLate-ladder order unchanged
A0 · No Ascension
Play without any Ascension modifiers.
BaselineReference
Elite density stays on the normal map pattern.
Ancient heals restore full missing HP.
Gold, potion slots, reward odds, and endgame structure stay standard.
Use A0 as the clean comparison line. Every later Ascension stacks on top of this state.
Active Modifier Stack
This is the full pile of rules that applies once the run reaches A0.
A0No Ascension
Baseline rule set.Use A0 as the clean comparison line. Every later Ascension stacks on top of this state.
Pressure Snapshot
The ladder is easier to read when you collapse it into route pressure, recovery, economy, opening consistency, reward quality, and the final act.
Baseline map generation uses the normal elite count.
Ancients still restore full missing HP.
Gold rewards stay at the normal line.
Potion storage and the opening deck stay clean at the start.
Card rewards still use the normal odds table.
The final act still closes with one boss.
Scarcity Reward Odds
A7 is where reward quality falls off. Rare hits and upgrade rolls both get clipped.
3%→1.49%
Normal reward screens almost halve their rare hits.
10%→5%
Elite fights still help, but the premium spike is much smaller.
9%→4.5%
Merchant windows miss their high-end cards more often.
1 pts→0.5 pts
The ramp toward a rare hit grows half as fast.
25%→12.5%
Act-based upgrade rolls on non-rare rewards are cut in half.
A8 Sample Boss Check
Pick one boss portrait and watch the HP line flip when Tough Enemies turns on.
Waterfall Giant
This sample keeps the breakpoint concrete. The HP line changes at A8, then holds steady through A9 and A10 while other pressure keeps stacking.
Waterfall Giant still uses the base HP band here. The big HP jump has not started yet.
Real Breakpoints
Not every Ascension step lands equally hard. These are the levels that change how you route, draft, or close the run.
A1Route pressure starts immediately
Elite count jumps before any combat stat changes do.
The map estimate moves from five elites to roughly eight, so the first Ascension already changes how often the route asks for a hard room.
A4The opening kit gets tighter
Potion storage drops first, then the starting deck picks up a curse.
A4 and A5 are the first levels that change what your run looks like on floor 1, not just what the map gives you later.
A6Map recovery starts shrinking
One Rest Site disappears from the generation counts.
This is where fallback recovery gets thinner. The ladder trims a campfire, but unknown-room counts stay normal in the live build.
A7Reward quality falls off
Rare odds and upgrade rolls both get hit.
Scarcity cuts rare pulls almost in half and slows the upgrade-roll climb, so mediocre rewards stay mediocre more often.
A8Enemy HP crosses the real breakpoint
A8 is the ladder's lasting HP jump.
From this point on, the run uses the tougher HP band. A9 and A10 keep that same HP line.
A9Damage, not HP, gets worse
The new punishment is incoming damage.
A9 keeps the A8 HP band and instead sharpens attack numbers, which is why sloppy defensive turns start collapsing.
A10The final act asks for two boss answers
Act 3 no longer lets you specialize for a single closer.
The run draws a second, different Act 3 boss. Endgame planning has to survive both.
Full Ladder Read
If you want the entire ladder in order, every level is listed here as a clean vertical stack.
Keep Reading
Open the next page once you want the full enemy board, boss lines, or card pool context.
FAQ
The common mistakes are simple: people remember the wrong max level, mix up A8 with A9, or treat Scarcity like flavor text when it is actually a reward-quality hit.
How many Ascension levels are live right now?
The current ladder runs from A0 through A10. A10 is the last available Ascension step on the live build.
When does enemy HP actually change?
Enemy HP changes at A8. A9 keeps the same HP band and instead upgrades attack values. A10 still uses the A8 HP band.
What does Scarcity really change?
Scarcity lowers rare card odds across rewards and shops, cuts rare pity growth per miss from 1% to 0.5%, and halves non-rare reward upgrade scaling per act step.
Does Gloom still remove ? rooms?
No. In the current live build, Gloom only cuts Rest Sites. Unknown-room frequency stays normal.
Why does this page show a sample enemy?
Because A8 is easier to understand when you look at a real boss HP line instead of a vague label. The sample makes the breakpoint visible.